Brain tumors: One surgeon's quest to transform the future (w/VIDEO)

July 3, 2017
| by Denise Heady

Brain surgery is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage, as well as curiosity and compassion. The truly great surgeons also have a desire to find new, and better ways, of healing the brain. Enter Behnam Badie, M.D., chief of neurosurgery at City of Hope.

Now a pioneer in brain tumor treatment, Badie entered medicine because of encouragement from his father. Healthy at the time, the family patriarch later succumbed to a brain tumor, the type of cancer in which his son now specializes.

Driven in part by that experience, Badie has since gone beyond the operating room. He wanted to help not just today's patients, but also tomorrow's patients. Through collaborations with other scientists and other clinicians, he knew he could conduct groundbreaking research that would help both.

City of Hope allows him to do all of this. That's why he's here.

Badie is now working to transform brain tumor treatment through research collaborations using nanoparticles, engineered T cells, engineered stem cells and other novel treatments.

The device that he's developing "will transform the way we do brain tumor treatment," he says. "My research gives me hope."